[UPDATE] Localized Bravely Second Art Book Receives Edits

Friday, February 26th, 2016

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Bravely Second: End Layer was released in Europe today. The Square Enix and Silicon Studios’ developed RPG has an art book packed with it’s Deluxe Collectors’ Edition among other items.

However, the 250-page art book is a reproduction of Design Works The Art of Bravely 2013-2015 a book some fans might already have imported from Japan or bought from and a local Japanese merchant. A twitter user helped verify a few changes made to the art book.

Firstly, multiple images of heroine Agnés Oblige drawn with her hands behind her back. These images were removed in the localized art book.

Japanese Art Book

Localized Art Book

Secondly, on Page 141, a bloody image of character Geist has been removed.

Japanese Art Book

Localized Art Book

A strange inclusion in the art book is the Native American tomahawk class for character Aimme. These images were left in, but the game altered the job class to be a cowboy instead.

New edits have been uncovered by NintendoTweet. In the Japanese art book the Agnes is shown tied up with red ribbon. This page has been taken out and replaced by an extended version of the previous page.

Japanese Art Book

Localized Art Book

About Operation Rainfall Contributor

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I’m going to pop my popcorn and wait to see how vehemently this will be defended.

NeoTechni

> it’s just localization. Just learn Japanese

Elilla Shadowheart

I’ve been working on that for 4 years now, and am married to a ex-JP national who teaches me for 3 hours every night. The entire thing is insane compared to English or even French.

Dgnfly

Actually its not insane or else you woulden’t have Fans doing fansubs that are nearly perfect for free, while ppl that are getting paid butchering it with stuff that wasen’t even said in the original.

Elilla Shadowheart

If you have a natural talent for languages, especially languages that use logographic based foundations…again…it’s easy. If on the otherhand, you have problems with logographic based languages it’s difficult.

You have the spare time, look back to the 1850’s though 1910’s when they were talking about switching to romaji, and the recent arguments that it should be changed because the competency test to become a citizen is considered too difficult with the mix between three different logographic based sets, and it would help alleviate their population problem.

Dgnfly

Actually i’m glad they stayed with the basics instead off going with romaji or else that would be like killing off your culture for convenience. still even with those differences there is always a meaning behind a word that can get translated or else nobody would ever be able to learn the language.

Even fansubs give ya a small transaltion what a pure japanese word is it woudlen’t be that hard to do in games. but the biggest problem always stays with pleasing the simpleton thats why it needs to be so Americanized cause ppl are either to look up the meaning just for the sake off lazyness.

I actually find it more interesting to look up true meaning for things that are pure in the countries culture aspects.

From what i mostly read there is 1 big road bump with japanese and thats Kanji for the most part even most japanese don’t know the meaning off about 2000 kanji words.

It always sucks i never truly had the time to study japanese with work and life being so crap.

Elilla Shadowheart

Well, I’d agree. But it looks like Treehouse is unable to do even that and would rather rewrite entire stories for an agenda.

Dgnfly

Then they shoudl have just been fired and ppl with skill should have been hired considering fansubs are free subbers i think they woulden’t mind doing it as their job.

Elilla Shadowheart

Having known a few people who do VN and H-game translations, I bet they’d jump at the chance to put their skills to use. But companies like Treehouse have a buddy-buddy culture, and in turn it means more buddy-buddies and their extremism are hired in.

You’d think a company like nintendo would realize people don’t want garbage translations…

Dgnfly

Like you said buddy-buddies mentality is the reason so many dumbasses get high postition cause they actually are incompetent and the only quality they have is kissing-ass.

I think nintendo cares little cause its more invested in the japanese market with these games, and they know its a niche market so i think they could care less what quality the product is in. sadly stupid fanboys will buy it thinking the next one would be better as long as they support it but slowly more stuff will be cut cause the market is Otaku and they like nudity in their games or weird minigames cause it feel less political correct which ruins any kinda fun these days.

Slade

“You’d think a company like nintendo would realize people don’t want garbage translations…”

You mean the same Nintendo of America that made Poison a tranny just because it’s not ok to hit a woman?

They’ve been doing this shit for decades. It’s just that now it’s going over board because political correctness and feminism are trendy.

Elilla Shadowheart

I did say nintendo, but nintendo of america is just a mess. And like a lot of companies here in the americas(canada and the US), have decided to toe it out with SJW’s and all that jazz. What needs to happen is nintendo of japan needs to reign them in and hard.

bob

She already was a tranny, they just made her a double tranny, because they’re pc pushovers, makes my head spin…

Viredae

Not necessarily true, the biggest hurdle in Japanese is the writing system, not the spoken language itself, sure, there’s a bit of a hurdle in getting used to a different grammar structure, but it’s nothing compared to learning Kanji to a proficient level.

Dgnfly

i basicly meant kanji in general not just in speaking sorry i wasen’t clear on that, i kinda rush things when i write them down.

I’m not sure about this 1 but if i recall there were actually more kanji words and it was shortened to about 2000.

Viredae

Quite alright.

Fake Mustache

I’m trying but the bastards have THREE alphabets, two of which are interchangeable, and one of which requires you to learn 6,000+ pictographs in order to be “fluent”, with over 80,000 total possible pictographs to possibly learn!

The spoken part is easy.
The written part is an abomination fit for use in torture regiments.

Immahnoob

2100~ not 6000+.

Fake Mustache

2,136 is the number required by the time of graduation from high school. Jōyō kanji, I believe it’s called.
The Kanji Kentei exam goes up to 6,355 at the top level, which is one level beyond the jōyō kanji requirements.

Immahnoob

But you don’t need that to be able to read and speak fluently.

Andrew Winn

that’s not the fact

It is Being disrespectful to the original artists work that they put time and effort into Creating.

Speed12345

The same people who supported the censorship in Fire Emblem Fates will support these changes as well. We are talking about Nintendo Fanboys who think Nintendo of America is right.

Andrew Winn

Nintendo’s shit is really starting to get out of Hand.

But then again nintendo really likes to screw shit up most of the time, with shit like this that is Unneeded and not necessary

Mr0303

They are even censoring the artbook. Great way to treat your biggest fans.

Immahnoob

OH, so now we’re censoring depictions of “violence” too?

Fucking hell, we’ve went so far from the 90’s, we’re now copying the Japanese censorship.

RocketSlime

Now that is unfortunate. :/

Can anybody confirm if the Japanese art books are always the same as the ones released in other regions? Is this a new trend?

Keichi Morisato

if there is a difference, it’s usually only that it is less comprehensive than the Japanese one. so yes, this is a new trend, because otherwise, it’s identical to the Japanese one.

Who cares! A real collector will live with it -or- deal with it. The western art book is fine. If you want the 3 other doodles you will save the jpeg or find a way to get the Japanese copy and put it on your shelf. NO EXCUSES!

that isn’t how it works anymore, down votes no longer bring comments to the bottom.

Ragunaxl

So, customers’ rights? do elaborate, please do. This will be rich. I mean, are you being forced to buy this? Do you have the right to not buy it altogether? Difficult, but is it at all possible to import the Japanese book on the secondary market? Isn’t this part of a bonus edition, can’t you enjoy the entire game without a copy of the book at all? Square Enix just might have the right to do whatever they want to their own product before it’s released. When you buy a game you only have the LICENCE to play one physical or digital copy.on the intended device. LICENSE not RIGHT. My brother is developmentally challenged by the way. It’s a hardship for the whole family. But he is the kindest soul I have ever met. A real great guy. I’m have to go wipe his butt now, so peace!

Todd

Has nothing to do with the topic. Hiding behind their brother’s
supposed disability to deflect criticism to their argument, as if that
has any bearing on this discussion. Possibly made up mentally
challenged brother

TrueWiiMaster

What you call “criticism” was just a baseless personal attack by an angry user. That’s not being critical, that’s being immature.

Joey

Content has been removed from the Japanese version which wasn’t nessecary. I do agree that some collectors will accept this, considering that getting the original Japanese version will cost money.

Still dosen’t work as an excuse to defend censorship, though.

Keichi Morisato

you see, art (and sub sequentially video games) are protected under freedom of speech. so the removal or changes to the piece of art, even for the purposes of localization, IS WRONG. there is a world of difference between translating a phrase to something that westerners are more familiar with and gives the same general message, it’s another to takes things out or changed into something else entirely. so no, i won’t #dealwithit.

TrueWiiMaster

That would only apply if it was the government forcing the change. Changes made to art by the owner of the art are protected under that entity’s freedom of speech, not yours. The moment Nintendo comes after your art, then your comment will apply.

Keichi Morisato

how do i explain this. self censorship is still censorship, and the only reason they are doing this is because they fear that government will step in, which is a very real threat right considering the current political climate that sides with the likes of Anita.

TrueWiiMaster

I seriously doubt Nintendo’s doing this to avoid government intervention, especially in America. Things may be different in other countries, but I find it unlikely that Nintendo made these changes out of fear of the government, especially when games like Senran Kagura are already on the 3DS. If Nintendo was afraid of anything, it would have been backlash from SJW’s and/or their friend, the media. Regardless of why they did it, though, self-censorship would still be protected under freedom of speech.

Keichi Morisato

there was a backlash over the Senran Kagura games, there still is. and with the way feminism has been going lately, the government may very well step in.

TrueWiiMaster

I’m sure there is, but not by the government. That’s an important distinction. There’s feminist backlash over almost everything.

Again, I don’t know about Europe (I don’t think they’re quite as interested in free speech over there), but I don’t think there is any real risk of the American government censoring Nintendo. Anita may have spoken to the UN, but the UN has no power here.

Keichi Morisato

doesn’t make it any less wrong.

TrueWiiMaster

I’m not sure anything could make Anita less wrong…

azariosays

I think for the fans that spent a lot of money and ordered before these limited editions sold out deserve a proper release of this art book. to take out images is pretty rude to these true gamers

Ragunaxl

Preordering something so far in advance without any real expectation as to what all the content is might be foolish. Necessary if you want to guarantee a copy, sure. But to find a few differences way after the fact with no promises being made before hand is kind of part-and-partial to the gamble you made. Don’t buy something unless it already exists. To eveyone above, you are spouting out you own interpretation of the amendments… to a video game company! From another country! Operationrainfall used to champion localization to underappreciated titles. Now all they do is complain about doodle ‘censorship.’

Steve Baltimore

We cover a lot of niche and unappreciated titles on the site on the various platforms, and do all this because we love gaming. However that doesn’t mean we ignore the clear issue of censorship that is going on industry at the present time. Furthermore we usually just report the news on what is being changed, and we do this because as consumers ourselves we think people would like to know what is in the products they are purchasing.

TrueWiiMaster

“we usually just report the news on what is being changed,”
There were several editorials that weren’t just reporting on what was being removed, like the one about Nintendo “killing Fatal Frame”. Articles like that only serve to discourage support for localized games, support which this site was originally founded to encourage and show.

Steve Baltimore

There were opinion piece in support of both Fatal Frame and Fire Emblem as we well on the site as well, furthermore Nintendo is not above criticism because they localize content.

Thunderball

Agreed 100% that Nintendo (or any company) should never be above criticism, and issues should be brought to the attention of the consumer. As a consumer, I like making informed decisions on the things I buy.

What I don’t agree with is having criticism and news mashed together in the same article, which frequently happens on this site. It’s fine to have an agenda (I’m as tired of censorship and poor localization as anyone), but it feels disingenuous to keep saying there isn’t one when there clearly is.

Hell, oprainfall has a great platform to reach out to people with. And it’s not unfamiliar with campaigning.

Steve Baltimore

Opinion pieces are clearly labeled as opinion, news pieces contain no opinion in them they simply report the news, to my knowledge there are no recent news articles on the site with opinion in them anywhere.

Thunderball

“For the consumer, nothing is more frustrating than a company they support not being open and crystal clear with them, which Sekai Project clearly was not, as they could potentially have admitted to some of these problems back when they first began. Still, it does not seem that Sekai Project did anything necessarily wrong here and has seemingly everything to do with the developer SRL.”

While I agree with that some of that statement, it’s an awful lot of opinion. It’s opinion and kind of oddly contradictory. Sekai Project clearly wasn’t open and crystal clear, as they could have *potentially* admitted to some of these problems. That’s making an assumption, and it then goes on to say that maybe Sekai Project didn’t do anything wrong and it’s apparently all the developer’s fault. That’s not interpretation, that’s opinion.

It happens a lot on the site. Typically more with the Nintendo stuff, for sure. Which I get. It’s a passionate topic for a lot of us, and their never ending silence on issues just makes it even more frustrating, so people are venting. Look no further than the excerpts on a bunch of Nintendo articles and you can see it. There’s extensive coverage of Nintendo censorship/localization (which is important and I thank you for bringing it to light), but outside of the podcast, I don’t recall there being a single article or news piece about the butt slap being taken out of Street Fighter V. Censorship or not, it still happened, but I don’t remember there being coverage here, in spite of several other news pieces on the game.

Ultimately, this is just one fan’s opinion. I think you guys have the potential to really make some kind of impact with the mess going on in gaming, and to some extent you already are.

Steve Baltimore

Street Fighter V did get covered on the site somewhat because we have a few contributors that wanted to see if our readers were even interested in that sort of thing, since main stream fighters are not usually something we cover. There’s also that debate with Street Fighter V if that is censorship since it was done before the final product was released. While personally I believe it is others do not agree with me.

Steve Baltimore

Also we have a lot of different writers on the site and some probably do interject themselves in their work more than others. So while we try to keep news as opinion free as possible, but a few likely slip in from time to time.

TrueWiiMaster

I seem to remember, and maybe I’m mistaken, more negative articles than positive for both of those games. Actually, I don’t remember any positive opinion pieces for Fire Emblem (maybe I missed them). It was largely the same for Xenoblade Chronicles X. It seemed like there was another negative piece everyday, while positive pieces were few and far between, and were mostly along the lines of “hey, here’s a new trailer!”.

Nintendo certainly isn’t above criticism, but the agenda of some of these articles seems to be discouraging support for the games, not just criticizing the localization. That goes directly against the original goal of Operation Rainfall, which was to encourage and show support for localized games. The site that pushed so hard for Xenoblade Chronicles to be released in America practically told its readers not to buy its sequel.

Furthermore supporting localization doesn’t mean you should accept an inferior or edited product.

TrueWiiMaster

Oh yeah, I remember that article now.

I’m not sure if it was ever said outright (at least not in the articles themselves; the comment section was a different story), which is why I said “practically”. I could write multiple scathing articles about a candidate running for office without ever actually saying “don’t vote for them”. In the end, my position would still be clear. The votes would still be up to the voters, but my articles could sway their opinion, and there’s a good chance they were meant to. When this site gives almost nothing but negative publicity to a game, it’s the same thing. Even if you don’t specifically say not to buy the game, you’re pushing people in that direction.

Steve Baltimore

I will not tell writers they cannot write their opinions in clearly labeled piece because it may give something a negative view. That’s not how this works, and writers could have just as well stepped to do pieces the other way they just did not in this case.

TrueWiiMaster

Of course not, and I wouldn’t want you to. I was just saying that this site has had numerous pieces that weren’t just reporting on changes made to games, and that I believe the stance that has been taken by many writers here lately is contrary to the original goal of Operation Rainfall. At the very least, the negative publicity does not seem to be balanced with positive, especially when concerning Nintendo’s games.

Steve Baltimore

Nintendo has censored or edited something in their last 4 Japanese game releases 3 of which were RPGs Of course it is gonna look that way. It’s hard to find people that have positive things to say when the games they love are under attack from censorship.

Steve Baltimore

In the first 3 or 4 years we ran this site I can think of maybe 5 games that got censored the entire time.

TrueWiiMaster

To be fair, how many Japanese games were released by major publishers during that time? More specifically, how many games were released by major publishers containing content like the “censored” content in these Nintendo games?

TrueWiiMaster

I can understand that, but there is a lot more to these games than just a few altered costumes and some changed pieces of dialogue. Xenoblade Chronicles X, for example, has some of the most beautiful environments of any game I’ve ever played, along with an awesome soundtrack, fun combat, etc. Fates is a fun strategy game with beautiful cut-scenes and great music. It even took the unique approach of making easy and hard stories. There’s a ton of good to talk about, and yet the tiny bit of bad got as much or more focus.

Steve Baltimore

People want an experience as close to the source as they can get. I’m not one of these literal translation folks by any means, however I feel you must stay true to the source when making changes. Nintendo has made a lot of unnecessary changes to these games for whatever reason. Thus the product we get is not the same as the source and a lot of people are not OK with.

TrueWiiMaster

I get that too. I’m kind of in the middle, in that I don’t care much if the changes happen or not, as long as the game is good, but I understand people wanting the “true” experience. I just think there should be more balance between coverage of the games, and coverage of changes made to the games. Right now, this site seems to tilt heavily toward the latter.

Steve Baltimore

Fe Fates localization is straight from the 1990’s there hardly any of the source left there and to be quite honest I dont even think they took it seriously. So far as X goes I think the edits were pretty minor and had the kept them to just Lyn I dont think as much would have been said about the them. There is no excuse whatsoever for that breast slider being removed. The only reason I can think of this is Nintendo is being way overly sensitive or they are treating all their fans like children. Most people want do decide for themselves what kind of content they want not have someone do it for them.

TrueWiiMaster

I haven’t seen much about that. Strangely enough, I don’t recall seeing an article here about that, but it sounds like the worst thing they did.

I do think the breast slider’s removal was awkward and unnecessary, but I didn’t think it was a big deal. And as I said in a different comment, I don’t think Nintendo made these changes to treat their fans like kids, but to protect themselves.

Crystal Colwell

Our original intention was to bring a few great games to a system lacking in that area. Our intention now is to spread news, reviews, and opinions on games. As far as I can remember our intention was never to accept what we were being given. Had that been the case Operation Rainfall would never have existed. We would have accepted a lack of games we wanted to play on the Wii…

TrueWiiMaster

So if Xenoblade had been on the PS3, which already had quite a few JRPG’s, there would have been no petition to bring bring it to America? I’m asking seriously. It seems odd to me that people so into JRPG’s were interested specifically in getting more Wii JRPG’s, when most of them likely had PS3’s already. Why the big push for JRPG’s, not because they were great, but because they were on the Wii?

“our intention was never to accept what we were being given.”
That was never my assertion. I thought Operation Rainfall was started to show Nintendo, and perhaps publishers in general, that there was a market for awesome JRPG’s in America, that the fans were there and they wanted the games. The goal of many articles nowadays seems to be shrinking that market to punish Nintendo’s localization.

Steve Baltimore

There is a huge market for these games it just seems Nintendo wants to give a version of them they want you to have and not the actual product these days, and a lot of people are not impressed by that.

TrueWiiMaster

I really don’t think it’s that Nintendo wants to keep things from players, or protect players from content. I think Nintendo made the changes to protect themselves from the loud minority of people who like to yell about that kind of stuff. Unlike many of the small publishers that are less prone to changing games in localization, Nintendo is supported by more than just niche gamers. Popular opinion matters to them. Put another way, a controversy on the news would probably hurt Nintendo more than it would hurt XSeed, because XSeed almost exclusively targets the market that wants, or at least doesn’t mind, that stuff, while Nintendo targets everyone.

Tristan (Chili1)

A real collector would probably want to have all of the art pieces physically in the artbook.

Dgnfly

Speed12345

So, you are defending it because… I know, because it’s Nintendo and Nintendo is the best gaming company ever and never do anything wrong and never explore his customer like EA or Ubisoft and all Nintendo’s DLC are fine and if Nintendo starts to bring a Season Pass to his games will be fine too since It’s Nintendo and Nintendo is 100% honest and bring hope to us unlike EA or Ubisoft which are mean and evil and Nintendo never fails and has the best games ever which could cost $100 without problems since they are worth it and Nintendo is Nintendo, Nintendo is power, Nintendo is love, Nintendo is justice, Nintendo is the best one.

TalesOfBS

Pretty much.

Malphius – Vury Scurry Bear

Over 30 downvotes fyi lol.

Cats736

How do you know this? I don’t see any downvote numbers like with upvotes and downvoting doesn’t seem to do anything besides making the arrow red.

Malphius – Vury Scurry Bear

There’s a plug-in for Chrome.

RocketSlime

I hate censorship. I hate when things are changed because it might offend people. Offense is always taken, never given. The good, the bad and the ugly are all part of the human experience, and all sides should be seen. I hate when people take it upon themselves to be offended for me. I especially hate the “politically correct” mentality sweeping through America.

But more than all of that, I hate all the fighting. We’re so busy fighting amongst ourselves, hurling as much mud as we can, that we’re losing. The weird “political correctness” movement that’s causing all this crap to happen is marching on, leaving us behind as we call each other names, scream and rage, and basically make people think the worst about our gaming community is true. Why aren’t we organizing, rallying together to change things? From what I see, we’ve driven away most opinions that are different from ours, and we’re just making the same comments, the same complaints, and getting nowhere. If anything, it’s getting worse, the in-fighting in the group that’s left behind growing downright nasty sometimes.

So why are we fighting eachother, when we should be fighting the root of the problem?

(P.S. I know there really wasn’t much fighting in this article, I’m just saying in general. That little spat on here just feels like the same old argument and insults I’ve been hearing for months and months.)

T

Because people defend this practice of censoring content. People think that any complaints we have are invalid. We have so much infighting because people actually LIKE the idea of being against us. They can’t stand the idea of a common enemy because they want to become the people we are fighting.

Mewshuji

“So why are we fighting eachother, when we should be fighting the root of the problem?”

Because a lot of people refuse to see the big problems so we’re forced to have discourse amongst those who do and debate on how to handle smaller problems.

See: someone else in this very comments section who thinks it’s fine for women to be raped on a daily basis.

David S

I’d like to say I’m surprised, but honestly anyone expecting anything coming though the Treehouse to not have pointless and needless censorship are just lying to themselves. At this point I’m just wondering how meme fill and butchered the NA localization will be. Kind of feel sorry for those who buy it unaware.

Merc

You know, this almost feels worse than the 90’s in a lot of ways.

TalesOfBS

It is worse. I wish i could go back to the 90’s and warn people who didn’t care back then that sht was going to get way worse.

It is not just feminism, it is a whole new generation of people whose lives are meaningless, easy and trouble free, that now they have a lot of free time on the hands to be in the internet being “social”, pretending they are some sort of activists and spread this political correctness BS.

You all already know these people. Back in the 90’s they were those troublesome school kids who didn’t get enough attention from their parents.

TrueWiiMaster

This was released in Europe…

Galbador

And where do you think Europe gets their copy?

TrueWiiMaster

Probably from Europe. Usually if one side is “borrowing” a localization, it’s NoA borrowing from NoE.

Galbador

NoA has a bigger influence, I bet they have their hands into this as well.

TrueWiiMaster

It’s certainly possible, but sometimes NoA just lets NoE do the localization, and then they do a “copy-and-paste”. That’s why the first Xenoblade’s voice acting is British. Without a confirmation, which we’ll probably never get, there’s no way to know who did it. All we know is that the changed game, and art book, were released in Europe first.

Galbador

Right, it actually doesn’t matter if NoA or NoE. The damage is done and alone counts.

PocketFaggots

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE. NINTENDO? SQUARE? WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA.

Infophile

Whoa whoa whoa… The Who had nothing to do with this. Don’t blame them.

…Unless you forgot a question mark there. In that case, it’s almost certainly Nintendo of America. As for why they thought it was a good idea, my best guess is that it’s due to rating. The Agnes in bondage pics and bloody Geist are both things that the ESRB might note and push the game to a higher rating.

Which, when you think about it that way, makes this nothing that movies haven’t been going through for even longer. It’s not unusual at all for movies to undergo various cuts to get the rating they want. We just don’t tend to hear about it as often due to the difficulty of comparing different versions pre-release. Plus, the culture battle over movies is a lot less virulent, and it doesn’t have a noisy component who’s anti-censorship of any sort yet.

TalesOfBS

At least with movies you can buy the uncut edition later, also they do include the extras…. Wish we had an option like this in games.

greenarcher02

What’s with the 50 Shades of Agnes anyway?

Infophile

^ I wonder if that was NoA’s reaction to it, in fact.

greenarcher02

I’m sure someone reacted to it that way. Does the ESRB cover this? I’m starting to think that for actual games like FE: Fates, it might not be entirely NoA’s fault, it could be ESRB and Nintendo just didn’t want to make it M so they obliged?

Infophile

I don’t know if it’s officially under their purview, but that’s also the case for dummied out content, and I’m sure you remember what happened when the “Hot Coffee” content was discovered. If Nintendo released an artbook deserving a T or M rating alongside a lower-rated game and it got picked up as an issue by a concerned parents group, then even if the ESRB doesn’t officially cover it, they’d almost certainly change their policies to do so.

greenarcher02

Yeah, wasn’t the ESRB formed because of the outrage over Mortal Kombat? I hope it doesn’t come to that all video gaming merchandise that comes with the game is also subject to rating….

British_Otaku

You mean PEGI right? America doesn’t have the game yet.

This is a limited edition bonus, which can be a real car or something depending on the game so I imagine it is completely unrated like the manual of a game or a game’s cover though it is probably in the best interests of any publisher to provide a cover which stores wouldn’t raise alarm about.

I have seen no proof that rating systems step in on such things, but I don’t think it is necessarily Nintendo exclusively depending on the translation hands handling this.

Dude, Fire Emblem Fates wasn’t close to an M with the content that Japan got.

greenarcher02

Yeah that’s what I was asking as I’m unsure if rating boards rate these things. I guess not so it’s all Nintendo or Square Enix?
As for Fire Emblem… Halo 3 was M and that also wasn’t close to M. You’d be surprised as to what the ESRB deems “Mature” and sometimes it’s a single thing… The dialogue sure, it was entirely NoA, but I’m not so sure with the cut content…

wow the first real intelligent idea ive seen in these debates….seriously in all the comments sections ive seen about “censorship” no one person puts any blame on the ESRB (either disregarding it or only using the ratings themselves to say whi Nintendo did it)

Audie Bakerson

Why?

Peluso M.

“Censorship? So far all I see is a bunch of sexist trash and gratuitous violence being removed or replaced. Nothing wrong here. Progressive values have been protected.” – said the oh so Politically Correct people.

They never realize people think they sound hollow like a broken record, they are that far removed from reality. They are basically fundamentalists.Talking with them is like talking with a wall. They made it pretty clear it is either us or them. They are enemies of freedom. I don’t even care about their excuses for their censorship, as far as I’m concerned anti-freedom lunatics have to go away from videogames forever and there shall be no discussion with them anymore. I will not be buying this censored garbage.

greenarcher02

It’s just a few pictures and it’s hardly life changing. I’m all for “voicing out convictions to try and change the system for the better” but don’t you think this is an overreaction? For all we know it was the ESRBs fault. I mean Halo 3 was M and that doesn’t even make sense. ESRBs M rating is just too broad and they might have deemed this, and the things they removed from FE:Fates as M, and of course Nintendo doesn’t want an M-rated FE game. Honestly I think they’re suitable for teens, and the ESRB should change the scope of M.

Immahnoob

No.

Steve Baltimore

The ESRB doesn’t rate extra content like the art books and such.

greenarcher02

Then I wonder who the hell decided this. 🙁

Travis

Nobody. Unlike movies, televisions, or video games, the literary world doesn’t have an industry-wide rating system. It’s basically a free-for-all, largely because unlike the rest of those industries, it’s been centuries since books were the scary new medium set to ruin a generation of children.

BigHurt360

I mean, how can any 3DS game be M, the graphics are so not life like and obvious not real.

greenarcher02

Every video game is obviously not real…. but Shin Megami Tensei IV is rated M.

…

Phoenix Wright Dual Dentinies is rated M (yes a PHOENIX WRIGHT GAME which is usually rated T)

Sylveria Shini

They’re literally censoring art now. Its not even debatable.

British_Otaku

Ah, I didn’t know it was a big adaptation of a book already released in Japan. It really should have only changed names.

I guess the market they are targeting can’t take seeing the artwork’s blood or bondage (both not part of the game experience but interesting parts of development and planning). Aimee is strange given the changes but the alternative is obviously having no art, her canon design can’t be retconned to make work and Miiverse posts from a year prior disappear.

Megamatics

As much as I want the game… I’m not buying it on principal. I don’t care if it sells a million copies and I am insignificant; because this is bs.

Travis

If you must, buy used. Nintendo doesn’t see a dime that way.

Azure

This is disgusting. I’ve already boycotted EA and now getting dangerously close to Boycotting NoE and NoA.

ugmomoe

Are SJWs against BDSM for their nonsensical reasons now? Does this have something to do with that Christian character from Fifty Shades of Grey being a douche?

Yasmin Torpelund Weaver

I thought the SJWs LOVED 50 Shades (and Twilight by extension) because it was about a “sexually empowered woman.” *cough*

BigHurt360

Yeah, and what else is new? Wierd that my old PS1 RPGs did come through as was and now there’s all sorts of edits. Just look at Dragon Quest for 3DS, they even changed inside Japan for some reason.

Isis Nether

Is it NOA that changed the Indian class to Cowboy, or did Japan do it? Cuz if NoA did it… racist af.

azariosays

Nintendo is publishing this game. For any edits to be made to the game, they would of had to have had a meeting about the content, approved it, sent it to silicon studios’ dev team, told them this is what needs to happen, the dev team makes changes. See, in this world, the person who’s putting up the money to have a game localized makes the calls. SE should have done this themselves and might even have had a hand in those changes. I was telling the boss today that i would really like to know why SE didn’t. I don’t make assumptions though, so as of now i’m just waiting for my next meeting with both companies (which will probably be E3).

Isis Nether

Jesuuuus.

I’m so glad I’m learning Japanese and will be able to import soon. At least this isn’t as bad what they did to Fates. Imma still play it, but damn. I could have lived with the loss of the petting game, but they had to remove the Japanese audio too?!

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I try to give the English dubs the benefit of the doubt, but they got a chibi running around with the voice of a 50 year old bar-maiden who’s seen too much of this world and I want to cry.

Ignore my complaints, I’m a cranky lass. Good luck, though.

Cael

“so as of now i’m just waiting for my next meeting with both companies (which will probably be E3).”
So you’re gonna ask them about this? Please do.

azariosays

You can bet I will ask the questions our readers have to every dev or pub. I don’t use this site to push my agenda, I use it to push the readers.

David S

Ask Square if they are still as comfortable taking content advice from the Treehouse after seeing what they did to FEF?

In they end, SE has to approve the changes, so this all lands at their feet. Everyone knows what NoA an their Treehouse will do to a game, so there is no excuse.

Ninty

If you want the Indian class intact then fine, but I’m not seeing how it’s racist to remove a class named after a group of people. I find it the opposite, actually.

Pepperkeet

Ahh Nintendo never fail us to pre-censor shit without anyone ever even being offended… I’m wondering what’s wrong with the first 3 censored images? despair = bad now? wtf i don’t even get it…

Urobolus

Iwata would be rolling in his grave if he saw what has become of Nintendo over the last few months.

TrueWiiMaster

Most of these just seem random. It doesn’t even look like they were removing “controversial” pictures, so calling it censorship, as many on here have, doesn’t seem accurate. Rather than blocking controversial or “unacceptable” images, it seems like they just made a bunch of changes for no reason. I don’t see the point of them doing it. They even left in the Tomahawk pictures, despite removing the class!

David S

Tomato, tomato. Just because you can’t see or understand the decisions behind removing certain images doesn’t change what it is. The art book is still censored.

TrueWiiMaster

Actually, the definition of censorship requires the removal or alteration to be of content considered unacceptable or objectionable. Simply changing something because you don’t like it, or think it would be better if changed, isn’t censorship. Otherwise, editing a comment to fix punctuation or spelling would be censorship. In other words, understanding the motive is integral to labeling an act as censorship.

Emma Inglis

Removes suggestive Agnes art, but keeps artwork and designs of Aimee that were altered for Western audiences for their potential cultural insensitivity.

Wut…

Craig Sloat

Really? I don’t understand why those were removed. It’s art…

Wolfe

Respectful to women, obviously.

demon.3

the lack of transparency and frankly shady practices with the game companies,the publishers and the rating system and the companies responsible for the ‘translating/localization” has clearly become unignorable at this point.
Though I will never,ever feel censorship is necessary,or acceptable that is a point of view I hold personally,however selling people a false bill of sale is a very slippery position to have.Trying to moralize things surreptitiously is false,it is a lie, and putting that into your business (nintendo) can have serious repercussions when it’s found out.